**6. Conclusion**

The sugarcane contributes significantly to the economies of many countries. However, there are still great challenges for sugarcane culture such as increase sugarcane productivity. Several studies have been developed aiming to obtain improvement of the genetic base of sugarcane varieties; increase production of first and second generation ethanol; obtain improvement of the environmental integrated production and recycling management; develop new technologies applied to the sugarcane culture; obtain more efficient machines to planting and harvesting of sugarcane; improve vehicles and improve job qualification and many others. Other researchers from universities have established partnership with private companies in the sugar, ethanol and energy sector, aiming to solve the logistical problems, mainly focused on harvesting logistics.

The transition from manual harvesting to mechanized harvesting promoted many productive gains and reduced losses; on the other hand, the harvesting system demanded a more complex planning, necessitating the development and application of mathematical and computational techniques, aiming to assist managers to make more assertive decisions during this agricultural planning.
